Well before he pulled on the sweater, Eric Staal already had a good grasp of what this all means.
Way back in 2006 — the first and only other time Staal has enjoyed a playoff run this long — the budding star and his Carolina Hurricanes strode into Bell Centre and knocked off the home team, the first step towards a stunning journey toward silver and champagne.
From both an enemy’s and a Canadian’s point of view, Staal was all too familiar with the deafening passion that binds the city of Montreal to its hockey team. Not much surprises a player 17 years and 1,293 games deep in the league.
Yet ever since Staal was dealt back to his home country, from Buffalo and the deadline, the closet Habs supporters in his circle have been coming out of the woodwork.
“For me now, being a Canadien, it’s now hearing from so many people that maybe I didn’t realize were massive Montreal Canadiens fans,” Staal said Canada Day morning, before hopping on the charter.
“There’s so many people around Canada that follow this team and follow this organization — and it’s very special. I know my dad and my mom and my family have been getting a lot of messages from a lot of people that are following closely and supporting us and me. So, it’s been fun.”
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Less fun? The results in Tampa Bay, where Lightning coach Jon Cooper leveraged last change, Blake Coleman wielded a magic wand instead of a hockey stick, and Andrei Vasilevskiy outduelled Carey Price something severe.
Staal echoes the chorus that Montreal “deserved a better fate” in Wednesday’s 3-1 Game 2 loss. The Habs outshot the defending champs 43-23 and generated 62.6 per cent of the expected goals, but the Lightning scored 75 per cent of the actual goals.
Like punishment, hockey can be cruel and unusual.
Strange will be the scene Friday at the first Canada-hosted Stanley Cup Final game in more than a decade and the first in Montreal in more than 28 years.
Despite a pitch from Canadiens executive VP and chief commercial officer France Margaret Bélanger to increase capacity to 50 per cent (10,500) for Games 3 and 4, the Quebec public health authorities will limit Bell Centre to 3,500.
“Bell Centre is always loud.” Canadien-turned-Lightning defenceman Mikhail Sergachev said. “Doesn’t matter how many fans they got there.”
Added young star Cole Caufield, who won world junior gold just six months ago: “This is a stage like no other. You can’t really compare this to anything. … Obviously wish we could have more people, but certain situations going on. They’ll still be loud and proud to be in there, so we’re really excited to get back home and play in front of our fans. I know outside will be pretty exciting too, so you know we’re just looking forward to Game 3 and having fans in the building.”
All that unseated anxiety and hope will be pushed to the streets. Fans will flood oversized screens outdoors, just as they did when the Canadiens punched their ticket against Vegas last week.
“Unfortunately, I think there’ll be a lot more people outside of the building than inside, which will be a little bit different, but we know that they’re there. We know that the support is there. And we know that everybody is as excited as we are to be in this position — in the final,” said Staal, viewing the emergence of head coach Dominique Ducharme from quarantine and home ice as a double jolt.
“We’ll use all that we can to have the energy to get the W.”
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Staal thought back to his Caufield-esque contributions to that defence-first 2006 Hurricanes squad, how the favoured Carolina leapt to a 2-0 lead in the final only to see the scrappy Oilers push the series to the limit.
“The series is still a long way from being over. Clearly, I remember that being on the other side,” Staal said. “Back in ’06, it got all the way to Game 7 — and anybody knows anything can happen in Game 7.”
Canadiens assistant coach Alex Burrows knows too well.
Burrows is the club’s link to the last Canadian franchise to make it this far.
Following Wednesday’s hard-luck loss, Burrows walked into the coach’s room and reminded Luke Richardson that the Vancouver Canucks were up 2-0 to the Boston Bruins in 2011… and we all know how that ended.
“You gotta be careful you don’t get overconfident, because they ended up losing that series,” Richardson said. “So, we got to keep that in mind.”
The Canadiens, led by Price and Shea Weber, will draw upon history and legacy and gold-medal spotlights, sure. But more so their recent rallying from 1-3 to stun Toronto in Round 1 and 0-1 to upset Vegas in the semis.
These are the stories competitors tell themselves standing in the shadows of a mountain.
Montreal must now win four of five games to steal the belt.
The last time the 2021 Lightning lost four of five games is no they haven’t.
The series now pits Knowing You Can versus Belief That You Can.
Starting Friday, Belief has home ice.
“There’s a determination. And you’re right, I think we can pull from some confidence from being down in series before and being confident in our style of play and just be a little bit more determined to finish,” Richardson said.
“Maybe score that first goal, play with the lead in the series, and see where it takes us.”
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
